Record number of alumni visit for Homecoming

This year’s Alumni Weekend brought in record numbers of Hopkins alumni and featured a number of events for both current and former Johns Hopkins students. Featuring a number of well-loved standards like the Homecoming lacrosse game — this year against the University of Michigan — and the five-year reunion dinners, the weekend also featured a new event that took place on the Beach and mixed students with young alumni.

Eta Flamholz, the Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Reunion & Homecoming Office, helped to plan the Alumni Weekend festivities. She spoke about Bring Back the Beach, an alumni event new to this year’s weekend. Five hundred people came to the event, current students and alumni alike. There were five food trucks in MSE circle as well as live music and a beer garden.

“We really wanted an opportunity for students to know that alumni weekend was happening on campus and have an opportunity to see alums come back and really see that there is a way of keeping affiliated after you graduate,” Flamholz said.

Flamholz spoke about the special appeal of the five-year reunion dinners for returning alumni.

“We have reunion dinners for each of the five-year reunion classes, so every five years there’s a fifth year reunion, a 10-year reunion, a 15th reunion, and those dinners individually get a lot of people,” Flamholz said. “But I think that’s a big pull for people coming back for a fifth year reunion or a 25th reunion that they can say this is where I am five years after I’ve graduated or 25 years after I’ve graduated.”

Flamholz described her office’s goal of reconnecting alumni with the Homewood campus. The office wants alums who were close to any particular department, team or group to see how much the campus has grown.

“We’re still a network, we’re still a resource for them, and they can always come back to their Hopkins roots,” Flamholz said.

This year’s Alumni Weekend, according to Flamholz, had greater attendance than last year’s.

“The events have certainly grown. We were at 4,000 registrations before on-site registration opened this year, which is a significant increase over last year, so certainly alums are more interested in coming back, especially with their families and having their kids see where they went to school,” Flamholz said. “I can tell you that specifically for young alums, the young alumni tent had around 1,400 people... They want to come back, see friends who might still be here, and have fun in Baltimore, see the city, have a weekend off.”

The Alumni Association, according to Flamholz, offers a connection to a vast network of Hopkins graduates.

“It’s a really big network, and people here really do care about the alumni and really do want the students to know that it’s an organization that exists so that they know when they do graduate, it’s not just an end to their Hopkins experience,” Flamholz said.

Flamholz said that Alumni Weekend would help inform students of the resources available through the Alumni Association.

“It’s partially just to know that the Alumni Association is here for when they graduate. It’s a group of people who are here for you when you’re ready to graduate and want to talk about either networking or where to live or how to continue being affiliated with Hopkins,” Flamholz said. “They’re invited to the beach event. They’re invited to tent party. They’re invited to the Hullabalooza, which is a live music event that happens after the dinners, and it’s really an opportunity to be aware that there are next steps and those next steps can be very productive.”

Flamholz also addressed the importance of Step Up Week, another way that students can interact with alumni.

“Step Up Week is a student-led effort to celebrate the many ways that philanthropy enriches the student experience at JHU and to recognize those people who step up to sustain philanthropy,” Flamholz said.

Flamholz encouraged students to connect with the Alumni Association and make use of its many resources during their time at Hopkins.

“People should know we’re here for current students as a resource, and if they want to get involved we would love to talk to them, meet with them at any point during their student career. They don’t have to wait to be seniors or to be graduated to get in touch with us,” she said.

Freshman Sandya Kumar spoke about her experience at Alumni Weekend.

“It was great to see all the alumni back on campus and so enthusiastic about Hopkins. They seemed interested in all the campus groups and enjoyed interacting with students,” Kumar wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “I definitely think I’d like to come back someday and reminisce like they did. Also, shoutout to the Alumni Association for having golf carts to drive people around — that was a great idea.”